Victor Sykes Wiki, Wikipedia, Lia, Boy Erased Real Story, Conversion Therapy

Publish date: 2024-06-17

Victor Sykes Wiki, Wikipedia, Lia, Boy Erased Real Story, Conversion Therapy

Victor Sykes Wiki, Wikipedia, Lia, Boy Erased Real Story, Conversion Therapy -: Victor Sykes, played by Joel Edgerton in the 2018 movie Boy Erased, which is based on the same-named novel, is modeled after Smid. Smid’s life story is covered in the “UnErased: Smid” Radiolab podcast from November 2018.

Victor Sykes

Focus Features’ drama picture “Boy Erased,” which was directed by Joel Edgerton, centers on Jared Eamons, a young homosexual man who enrolls in Love in Action’s gay conversion therapy evaluation program in order to be converted to a heterosexual. Director of Love in Action Victor Sykes oversees the counseling program. Jared and the other program participants are made fun of for being gay by Victor and the other Christians in the group. As Jared tries to get away from Victor and his group, the movie advances. Victor caught our attention, so we decided to see if the persona was based on a real person. Here is what we can say about it, though!

Does Victor Sykes Represent a Real Person?

Victor Sykes is, in fact, based on a real individual. John J. Smid, the former director of the Memphis-based ex-gay organization Love in Action, served as the inspiration for the character. Denver, Colorado, is where he was born. Smid had two daughters with a woman he was married to before he joined the religious group. In 1979, after “deciding” that he was gay, he divorced his wife. He was lured to the evangelical Christian doctrine in the late 1980s, which introduced him to Love in Action. In 1988, he wed his second spouse, and in 1990, he was appointed executive director of Love in Action.

The “Refuge” program at Love in Action, which concentrated on gay conversion therapy for teenagers, was developed and implemented by Smid. Regarding conversion therapy, Smid stated in 2005, “I hope we can help men and women overcome…mindsets counterproductive to their walk in Christ.” One of the teenagers who participated in Smid’s gay conversion therapy was Garrard Conley, who served as the model for Jared Eamons, the protagonist of the movie. ‘I had acquired an addicted practice of masturbating that carried into my marriage,’ Smid claimed [in a testimony],’ Garrard wrote about Smid in ‘Boy Erased: A Memoir,’ the book that served as the inspiration for the movie.

According to the author’s additional statement, “Rising out of this sin, Smid now believed a higher power had elected him to lead other gays out of their addiction into successful marriages.” Smid left his job at Love in Action in 2008, apparently due to legal problems, negative press, and conflicts inside the company. 2007 saw the end of the gay conversion treatment program he created for Love in Action.

What’s become of John Smid?

Smid expressed regret for participating in LGBT conversion therapy at Love in Action after leaving. In 2010, he stated on his website, “If you have been hurt by me or harmed at the hands of my leadership, please come to me and give me the chance to personally apologize in the hope that we can both be freed from the bonds of unforgiveness.” The ‘Refuge Programme’ for teenagers was run by Love in Action, which received the greatest attention. The Refuge Programme would be the thing I would change if I could go back in time and do it now knowing what I know now. I’m sorry for the additional harm Refuge caused to young people who were already in a vulnerable situation, he continued.

At some point, Smid was forced to acknowledge that his conversion therapies didn’t actually alter a person’s sexual orientation. According to Garrard’s book, “The transformation for the vast majority of homosexuals will not include a change in sexual orientation,” Smid acknowledged. According to Garrard in the book that served as the basis for the movie, “As if this is all it takes—Smid’s admitting to the obvious lie he’d sold me and my family —to repair the damages inflicted on all of us.” Ex’d Out: How I Fired the Shame Committee, Smid’s memoir from 2012, discusses his attempts to cut ties with the ex-gay movement in order to live an “authentic life.”

Smid worked on the production of the Morgan Jon Fox documentary ‘This Is What Love in Action Looks Like,’ which follows the life of Zach Stark, a different adolescent who underwent gay conversion therapy at Love in Action. Smid also began speaking out about the dangers of conversion therapy and founded the LGBTQ+-affirming Grace Rivers Ministry. After divorcing his second spouse in 2011, he finally dated Larry McQueen. They were wed in 2014. The pair spent a considerable amount of time in Paris, Texas, before making the announcement that they would be relocating to Pearcy, an Arkansas CDP, in March 2022. Smid is a furniture maker right now.

Smid said of his marriage to Larry, “I believe that due to my former notoriety, it will definitely have its impact.” “I think it’s encouraging for other ex-gays and perhaps even for those who are still clinging to their ex-gay worldview. We believe that our relationship shows something extremely typical, not odd or false homosexual stereotypes. We’ve arrived at the conclusion that our union is extremely similar to the typical heterosexual union, he continued.

Victor Sykes News

Former LGBT leader: Conversion therapy ought to be abandoned because it is ineffective.
John Smid, who for 22 years oversaw the “ex-gay” group Love In Action, now opposes conversion therapy.

So-called conversion treatment does not work, according to a former leader in the “ex-gay” society.

Aversion therapy, sleep restriction, and even electroshock therapy are all used in conversion therapy, sometimes known as “gay cure” therapy, in an effort to forcefully alter a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.

At least 20 states, Washington, D.C., and countless municipalities have prohibited the practice, which has been condemned by the majority of psychological and mental health organizations as well as the U.S. Surgeon General’s Office.

John Smid, who formerly served as the executive director of the Christian organization Love In Action, has now spoken out in opposition to any effort to coerce an LGBTQ person into changing their identification.

Smid discussed his own experiences with conversion therapy in a piece for The Advocate. He also discussed the new drama Boy Erased, which included a character based on Smid played by writer-director Joel Edgerton.

The movie was challenging to see, according to Smid, because it “vividly illustrated the horrific reality of my own journey over a 25-year period.” “In 1987, I learned that my homosexual aspirations were derived from dark, immoral areas in my heart. I was instructed to submit to God in order for him to pardon my wicked nature.

Smid began his 22-year tenure as the head of Love In Action, a now-defunct organization that was a part of the larger umbrella of ex-gay organizations known as Exodus International, in 1990 after getting married to a woman in 1988.

Exodus International’s president, Alan Chambers, publicly shut down the group in 2013 and stated in 2016 that conversion therapy should be avoided: “This is not something that is going to succeed. It’s hazardous. The result is a disgrace. You won’t experience a shift in orientation as a result of it.

Smid wrote that he would go to conferences where “[l]eaders shared stories of their own transformation while covering up that they actually remained unchanged.” Smid delves further into the hypocrisy of the ex-gay movement.

He also acknowledged that the fact that there are still ministries operating in 2019 that claim to transform someone’s orientation “haunts” him.

As an ex-leader of the “ex-gay” movement, Smid wrote, “I wholeheartedly agree with the leading medical and mental health organizations that condemn sexual orientation change efforts. Thousands of people in their care are not becoming straight as advertised, yet these programs cruelly condition God’s love for transitioning to heterosexuality.

Smid, who wed a man in 2014, also provided some explanations for why he persisted in promoting conversion therapy to vulnerable individuals and their families for more than 20 years.

I was duped into thinking I could change, I can now admit, he wrote. “In the process, I lied to a lot of people because I couldn’t be honest with myself. I kept requesting clients and financial support for our ministry while spreading a diluted message that somehow God was doing a miracle of change.

Smid concluded by saying that he is expending “a tremendous amount of energy” in an effort to atone for the harm caused by ex-gay ministries such as Exodus International and Love In Action. He also called for the cessation of conversion treatment “before more young people…are harmed.”

It is crucial that efforts to modify sexual orientation come to an end before additional children and adults suffer harm, he wrote. “Conversion treatment is risky and potentially fatal in all of its forms. Falsehood and self-denial are not the solution. Self-acceptance and living one’s truth are what it is.

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